Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Several hundred activists converged upon the Journalists Syndicate in
downtown Cairo on Wednesday to protest the outlawing of the oppositional
April 6 Youth Movement, while also calling for the release of two of
the group’s jailed leaders, Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel.

This liberal movement was outlawed on Monday by the Court of Urgent
Affairs. Its judges ruled that April 6 had received foreign funding with
the aim of sowing discord within Egypt, and of tarnishing the country’s
image abroad.

Also on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement
urging Egyptian authorities to lift the ban imposed on this youth
movement. The statement said that Monday’s court ruling was a “further
attempt to silence dissent.”

HRW added that the verdict is “a clear violation of citizens’ rights to
free association, peaceful assembly, and free expression.”

The April 6 Youth Movement is the second oppositional group to be
outlawed since December 25, when the interim government classified the
Muslim Brotherhood as an outlawed terrorist organization.

Standing on the stairs outside the Journalists Syndicate, hundreds of
members of the April 6 Youth Movement chanted against Monday’s court
verdict and against the recently issued Protest Law, which restricts
freedom of assembly and grants police forces sweeping powers in dealing
with rallies, protests and public gatherings.

“Down with your laws … protesting is our right,” chanted throngs of
angry youth, along with, “Judges have sold their principles and justice …
but you will not keep us from our cause.”

April 6 Spokesperson Mahmoud Gamal told Mada Masr: “We plan on
appealing against the court’s verdict. Yet we also know that our appeal
may be dismissed or the verdict upheld. We have lost faith in many
judges.

Two leaders of the April 6 Youth Movement Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel —
along with a number of other activists — were arrested in late November
for violating the provisions of the newly issued Protest Law by
conducting an unauthorized street protest.

On December 22, the Cairo Court of Misdemeanours sentenced Maher and
Adel, together with liberal activist Ahmed Douma, to three years
imprisonment and fines of LE50,000. On April 7, the Cairo Appeals Court
rejected the activists’ appeal and upheld their previous sentences.

Attending the protest at the Journalists Syndicate, Mohamed Yassin
identified himself as a sympathizer of the April 6 Movement. Yassin
commented: “We no longer expect justice from the judiciary. They only
issue politicized rulings to punish opponents of the regime.”

According to Gamal, “the ruling authorities are accusing us of
ridiculous things, such as being agents of both Israel and Iran.”

Holding up black April 6 flags and clenched fists, protesters chanted:
“You who ask about foreign funding ... Sisi is a traitor and foreign
agent.”

The unified chant: “Down with military rule” rang loud and clear well over a block away from the Journalists Syndicate.

Other chants, which included curse words directed against police
forces, were hushed by April 6 members, who apparently did not want the
throngs of journalists, camera crews and passers by hearing such words.

Other protesters held up banners calling for the release of all
political activists. The names of tens of jailed secular activists were
held up on placards.

Others held posters of Sayed Abdallah of the April 6 Movement who was
shot dead — reportedly by security forces — during the third anniversary
of the January 25 Uprising.

The April 6 Youth Movement was established in 2008 in solidarity with a
labor strike at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in the Nile Delta
City of Mahalla. While this strike was thwarted by police forces, a
localized uprising took place in the city on April 6 and 7.

The April 6 Movement was a leading force in a number of street protests
under the regime of Hosni Mubarak and was a key player in the January
25 Uprising in 2011, which culminated in Mubarak’s resignation on
February 11.

This youth movement aligned itself with the Muslim Brotherhood’s
presidential campaign for Mohamed Morsi in 2012. It continued to support
the Islamist president, but later opposed him just ahead of the June 30
Uprising in 2013, in which it participated and called for his ouster.

However, following Morsi’s removal by the Armed Forces on July 3, 2013,
this youth movement began to criticize the interim authorities and the
presidential ambitions of military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who
ousted the elected Islamist president.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Amnesty International today warned of grave flaws in Egypt's criminal
justice system after a court in El Minya, Upper Egypt, confirmed death
sentences for 37 people and imposed terms of life imprisonment to 491 in
one case, and began the legal process of sentencing 683 to death in
another.

Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland
said, “Today’s decisions once again expose how arbitrary and selective
Egypt’s criminal justice system has become. The court has displayed a
complete contempt for the most basic principles of a fair trial and has
utterly destroyed its credibility.

It is time for Egypt’s authorities to
come clean and acknowledge that the current system is not fair or
independent or impartial “Egypt’s judiciary risks becoming just another
part of the authorities’ repressive machinery, issuing sentences of
death and life imprisonment on an industrial scale.”

“The verdict must not be allowed to stand – the convictions of the 37
sentenced to death and 491 sentenced to life in prison must be quashed
and fair retrials with no possibility of the death penalty must be
ordered immediately for all the defendants.”

All 528 defendants were facing charges in connection with an attack
on a police station in August 2013 and belonging to the banned Muslim
Brotherhood movement.

The verdicts in their cases come after a grossly
unfair trial in which the judge did not review evidence or allow the
defence to cross-examine witnesses. Defence lawyers and defendants alike
were barred from the previous session on 24 March, in which the court
indicated it would sentence all 528 to death.

Today, the same court also referred 683 defendants, including Mohamed
Badie, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, in a separate case
involving political violence to Egypt’s Grand Mufti – who under Egyptian
law must review all death sentences before the court formally imposes
them.

They were accused of murder, attempted murder, burning Adwa Police
Station, belonging to a banned group and participating in a gathering
of more than five persons with the intention of committing the above
mentioned crimes. This trial also was fundamentally unfair, as reported
by an Amnesty International delegate who attended the trial.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all circumstances
and considers it to be the ultimate cruel, degrading and inhuman
punishment.None of the defendants in either case was brought to court.

REUTERS

Mass trials in the biggest Arab state have
reinforced fears among human rights groups that the government and
anti-Islamist judges are using all levers of power to crush opponents.

April 28, 2014

An Egyptian court sentenced the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and
682 supporters to death on Monday, intensifying a crackdown on the
movement that could trigger protests and political violence ahead of an
election next month.

In another case signaling growing intolerance of dissent by
military-backed authorities, a pro-democracy movement that helped ignite
the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 was banned by
court order, judicial sources said.

The death sentence passed on Mohamed Badie, the Brotherhood's general
guide, will infuriate members of the group which has been target of
raids, arrests and bans since the army forced President Mohamed Morsi
from power in July.

The movement says it is committed to peaceful activism. But some
Brotherhood members fear pressure from security forces and the courts
could drive some young members to violence against the movement's old
enemy the Egyptian state.

Badie was charged with crimes including inciting violence that
followed the army overthrow of Morsi, who is also on trial on an array
of charges.

In a separate case, the court handed down a final capital punishment
ruling for 37 others. The death sentences were part of a final judgment
on 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters sentenced to death last month. The
remaining defendants were jailed for life, judicial sources said.

Death sentence recommendations in the case involving Badie will be passed on to Egypt's Mufti, the highest religious authority. His opinion can be ignored by the court.

Mass trials in the biggest Arab state have reinforced fears among
human rights groups that the government and anti-Islamist judges are
using all levers of power to crush opponents.

"The decisions are possibly the largest possible death sentences in
recent world history. While they're exceptional in scale, they're
certainly not exceptional in kind," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive
director for Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch.

"It seems that these sentences are aimed at striking fear and terror
into the hearts of those who oppose the interim government."

In an early reaction from a Western government, Swedish Foreign
Minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter that the mass trials were an
"outrage." "The world must and will react!"

There have been Western reactions to Egypt's approach to dissent. But it mostly comes in the form of statements, not action.

Egypt's relations with the United States
— the source of $1.5 billion in annual aid, most of it to the Egyptian
military — have been strained in the three years since the overthrow of
Mubarak.

Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy is currently on an official visit to the
United States, describing it as a trip to "redirect relations between
Egypt and America."

The United States froze some of its military aid to Egypt last
October following Morsi's overthrow and the state's violent crackdown on
his supporters.

Last week, Washington said it would deliver 10 attack helicopters to
help the government in its fight against Islamist militants in the Sinai
Peninsula.

Monday's rulings can be appealed. Many defendants are on the run.

Nevertheless, the cases have raised new questions about Egypt's
stumbling political transition three years after an army-backed popular
uprising ousted Mubarak and raised hopes of a robust democracy.
The political turmoil that has gripped Egypt and an Islamist
insurgency based in the Sinai have hammered the economy, which grew by a
meager 2.1 percent last year.

"In a month, Egypt sentences more people to death than the rest of
the world combined. It is not the kind of news to rekindle confidence,"
Angus Blair, chairman of business and economic forecasting think-tank
Signet, wrote on his Twitter feed.

Pro-democracy movement banned

As soon as word spread of the death sentences, relatives of the
defendants screamed and cried outside the court in the town of Minya.

"This is a corrupt government. This is a failed regime. We have no
real police. We have no real state," said Sabah Hassan, whose son was
sentenced to death.

Others collapsed on the street as soldiers with AK-47 assault rifles standing on an armored vehicle looked on.

Relatives blamed Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the general who deposed Morsi.
The former head of military intelligence under Mubarak is expected to
easily win presidential elections on May 26-27 in a country long ruled
by men from the military, Morsi's time in office representing the rare
exception.

"Sisi is ruling like a king" and "May God punish you for what you did" some people chanted.
Authorities have extended a crackdown to secular activists.

A ruling on Monday banning the activities of the April 6 movement
follows the imprisonment of three of its leading members last year on
charges of protesting illegally.

The charges against April 6 included "damaging the image of the state."

Authorities still see the Brotherhood as the most dangerous threat.
Egypt's biggest political party until last year, the Brotherhood has
been outlawed and driven underground.

It has vowed to bring down the government through protests, despite a
security campaign that has weakened a movement believed to have about
one million supporters in the nation of 85 million.

Despite decades of repression under one Egyptian ruler after another,
the Brotherhood has managed to survive, winning over Egyptians with its
social networks and charities.

The judge who handed down the death sentences, Saeed Yousef, has a
history of imposing the maximum punishment. In one case, he sentenced
someone to 30 years in jail on charges of shoplifting clothes and
illegal possession of a knife.

He is not always tough on defendants. Last year, Yousef acquitted a
police chief and 10 policemen accused of killing 17 protesters during
the revolt that ousted Mubarak.

Al-Jazeera

Youth group, a key player in the 2011 uprising, is accused of espionage and defaming state's image.

28 Apr 2014

Dahlia Kholaif

An Egyptian court has banned the activities of the April 6 youth
movement, which played a key role in mobilising support for the
revolution against Hosni Mubarak's rule.

The verdict, which included the freezing of the movement's activities
and confiscation of its headquarters, was issued by the Court for
Urgent Matters on Monday which accused April 6 of espionage and tainting
the state's image, the state-run newspaper Al Ahram reported.

Lawyer Ashraf Saeed filed the lawsuit, which he said was prompted by
recordings aired on a private-run television channel, of members of the
group allegedly plotting against Egypt.

The movement had joined calls for the unseating of elected president
Mohamed Morsi last year, given his reluctance to heed calls for
political reforms. The April 6 movement supported the army-led overthrow
of Morsi.

However, it quickly turned against the military-installed regime amid
an intensified crackdown against dissent, which led to the ruling
against its founders Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel, who are accused of
staging protests without securing the Interior Ministry's approval as
stipulated by a law the government has issued. The two leaders now face
jail sentences.

The group has often faced accusations of receiving funds from abroad
and plotting against the country. Members of the group have denied all
these allegations.

"All of the group's activities are peaceful expression of opinion...
The key goal of the movement's activities is to object to any move made
by the regime that could lead to sabotaging of the state," April 6 said
on its Facebook's official account in response to the court ruling.

"April 6 is a vital part of this generation's dream and voice. We
will go on, and our activities, opinions and voices will be expressed as
we please," the statement said.

Members of the youth movement had on Saturday joined other liberal
and secular groups in a march to the presidential palace against the law
curbing protests, demanding the freedom of their members, along with
thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters who have been detained since
the July coup.

The US-based multinational corporation, Cargill, has been criticized
both locally and internationally over its heavy-handed response to an
ongoing workers’ protest at its plant in Borg al-Arab City, which has
been ongoing for over four months. Videos circulating of workers being
physically assaulted and having barking dogs unleashed upon them has led
to widespread condemnation.

The National Vegetable Oil Company, which is owned by Cargill, is
witnessing a wide spectrum of labor violations, including the wholesale
sacking of protesting workers and unionists, assaults on protesters
using private security contractors and dogs, a virtual siege of the
workers’ sit-in with electricity and water being cut off from the
company – preventing the entry of food, drink, medicines and visitors to
the workers inside – amongst a host of other transgressions.

After protesting (yet not striking) for their overdue bonuses,
profit-shares and insurance coverage, workers at this company have been
subjected to a lockout since December 15. Moreover, the company
administration has since sacked nearly 90 percent of its workforce –
including the local labor union committee in its entirety.

A total of 86 workers were employed at this company, 75 of whom have
been punitively sacked for protesting – including all eight members of
the union committee. Around 66 workers are still occupying their company
grounds and maintaining their sit-in.

Only 11 workers remain employed at the company, although production has come to a complete standstill since mid-December.

Company workers, along with state officials, labor unions, NGOs and
rights activists have all spoken out against the punitive measures that
the National Vegetable Oil Company has taken against its workforce.
Representatives from the US Embassy in Cairo are also reported to be
involved in negotiations with the Egyptian employers.

Following an inspection of the company, the Ministry of Manpower’s
Regional Bureau in Alexandria issued a written statement on February
10 criticizing Cargill’s administrators for “unnecessarily halting
production, as there is no economic justification to do so.”

Mostafa Sebai, chief inspector at the Manpower Bureau in Alexandria,
recommended that punitively sacked workers should be reinstated and that
overdue payments should be delivered.

Speaking at a labor conference on March 23, sacked worker Alaa Abdel
Aleem commented, “We’re being treated like enemy combatants.”

“They’ve tried to terrorize us into withdrawing from the company
through the use of armed thugs and dogs. When that failed they tried to
impose a siege upon us and to starve us,” he added.

Abdel Aleem added that the physical and psychological health of many of
his protesting co-workers remains threatened. The storming of the
company grounds by private security forces and their dogs resulted in
minor injuries, trauma and psychological harm.

The sacked worker explained that “people are no longer allowed in to
visit us or to inspect our conditions. Those of us who leave the sit-in
are forcefully prevented from returning and rejoining our co-workers.”

In statements issued during the first week of April, the Ministry of
Manpower has denounced the ongoing transgressions against workers’
rights at the National Vegetable Oil Company, and has cited 41
violations of Egypt’s Unified Labor Law 12/2003.

The Ministry has given the company’s administration until mid-April to
address these transgressions, or face a referral of these violations to
the prosecutor general.

However, the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU)
has criticized the Ministry’s “lack of action and its foot-dragging”
since December. In a written statement issued on April 15, the EFITU
denounced suggestions proposed by the Minister of Manpower, Nahed
al-Ashry, to the effect that workers should accept their dismissals,
while the company should offer them compensations.

Events at the Cargill-owned company have also drawn a response from the
International Labor Organization, whose regional representative,
Mohamed al-Taraboulsi, described the administration’s tactics as “a
grave violation of international labor laws.”

Speaking at a conference dubbed “Ending the siege on Cargill’s workers”
on April 7, Taraboulsi commented that he aspired to resolve the
conflict between Cargill’s administrators and its workforce, before
raising these violations with the ILO’s general assembly.

Taraboulsi added that the company’s policies should not resort to
punitive sacking and physical assaults on workers but through dialogue
and negotiations, and that he is willing to provide consultancy and
mediation regarding workers’ rights and international labor conventions.

Since the crisis at the National Vegetable Oil Company began in
December, sacked workers have received letters of solidarity from some
60 local trade unions and labor rights organizations, along with
petitions and campaigns from the International Food Workers’ Union
(IUF), the IndustriALL Global Union Federation, and the US-MENA Labor
Solidarity Network. Workers from the US, Belgium, Germany and
Switzerland have also sent messages of solidarity.

Another sacked worker, Waleed Mossaad, told Mada Masr, “This week we’ve
launched an online campaign in both English and Arabic to raise
awareness regarding the plight of all workers at the National Vegetable
Oil Company.”

Mossaad claims he has forcefully been denied entry back into the sit-in within the company since February.

According to Mossaad, “On February 2, we left the sit-in to meet with
then-Minister of Manpower Kamal Abu Eita. Upon returning, we were told
that we were not to be allowed back in the company as we had been
fired.” Indeed, since January, the administration has posted notices
within company gates to all those workers it had laid off.

Mossaad explained that he had sought the ministry’s intercession in
resolving the crisis between the workers and administrators. According
to Mossaad, the UK-based G4S private security company was hired to
forcefully disperse and remove the workers on December 23.

Videos circulating of this attack on December 23 show burly private
security forces – many of whom were dressed in black shirts and
camouflage pants while swinging clubs in their hands, while others
donned orange helmets and handled large black dogs – yet the G4S logo is
not visible on their clothes.

Mossaad claims that retired Armed Forces General Sameh Seif al-Yazal,
chairman of the G4S Company in Egypt, ordered these private security
personnel to forcefully disperse the sit-in. This could not be verified,
however.

Several workers are reported to have suffered minor injuries
on December 23, while others are allegedly suffering from trauma and
psychological breakdowns since dogs were unleashed on them.

The security company succeeded in removing the workers from their
sit-in by the factories, to the garage area within the company gates.

According to Mossaad, from December 23 to March 13, “we had to smuggle
food, water and medicine over the company’s gates and through its fences
to our coworkers within. We had to run from the dogs and security
guards who were constantly threatening us.”

The company’s administration is said to have resorted to another
private security company on March 13, the name of which is not known.
According to workers, on that day the water supply was turned on in the
bathrooms once again.

According to Mossaad, the security guards agreed to let food and medicine in to the protesting workers on March 18.

Mossaad claims that this “easing of the siege” was a result of
negotiations between representatives of the US Embassy, the company’s
administration and the Ministry of Manpower to end the crisis.

According to Mohamed Kashef, a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative
for Personal Rights, “The administration of the National Vegetable Oil
Company has proven to be very obstinate and unyielding towards the basic
rights of its workers.”

Kashef explained that the company was very profitable, and that its
workers had helped increase productivity. The company’s vegetable oils
constitute about 40 percent of the contents of each bottle of
state-subsidized cooking oil.

“The most recently employed worker at this company has been there for
six years, others have been working there for many more years.
Nevertheless, workers have been denied bonuses, profit-sharing,
long-term contracts, health insurance, social insurance, medical
compensations and, for the past four months, have been denied their
union representation, along with their incomes and jobs,” he added.

Kashef added that the company’s administration is seeking to isolate
its protesting workers from contact with the outside world, so that
their grievances will not be heard. Kashef, along with numerous other
researchers, doctors, lawyers, activists and journalists have repeatedly
been denied entry into the company gates to meet with the workers
within.

The researcher went on to state that “the Cargill Company in America
appears out of touch with events at the National Vegetable Oil Company.
As for the local Egyptian administrators, they have claimed that the
protesting workers are opportunists, demanding things which they are not
owed.”

Kashef concluded by saying that the company’s “local administration is
not willing, as of yet, to partake in collective bargaining agreements
with its workers, or with the Ministry of Manpower. This is why they
have arrived at no agreement or compromise in order to settle this labor
dispute through dialogue.”

According to Mossaad, “We need to have Cargill in America hear our
voices. The workers of the National Vegetable Oil Company are desolate,
besieged, gagged, monetarily broke, and are suffering from hunger and
illnesses. The company here wants to get rid of us and hire new workers
to work for less pay, but nobody should have to put up with such
exploitation and blatant disregard for labor rights.”

Despite repeated attempts to contact the administrators by phone and
email, there has been no response. As for Cargill’s representatives in
Egypt, they declined to respond to questions via phone and email.

The agricultural and food processing giant Cargill has been operating
in Egypt since 1994. Cargill has acquired 98 percent of the National
Vegetable Oil Company’s shares since 2004.

Beyond the National Vegetable
Oil Company in Borg al-Arab, Cargill owns a grain transport terminal,
the National Stevedore Company, in the Alexandrian port of Dekheila.
This multinational corporation is also involved in the trade of grains,
soybeans, animal feed, and sugar along with sugar-processing. According
to Cargill's website, this mammoth corporation employs some 370 people
in four locations across Egypt.

MAHALLAH, Egypt // Egypt’s next president will have to contend with
frustrated workers who have threatened a new wave of nationwide strikes
if their demands are not met by an already cash-strapped government.

Abdel Fattah El Sisi, the ex-army chief who removed Islamist
president Mohammed Morsi last July and is hailed by supporters as a
tough leader who can restore stability, is widely expected to win next
month’s election.

But he is likely to face strident demands from
the same labour leaders who organised a massive 2008 strike seen as a
precursor to the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade
rule.
And with tourism and investment having largely dried up
following three years of turmoil, it’s unclear whether the government
can meet their demands.

Labour activist Kamal Fayoumi says he
struggles to make ends meet despite having worked at a textile factory
for 30 years, and he and other labour leaders insist the promise of the
2011 uprising -- “bread, freedom, social justice” -- has yet to be
fulfilled.

“All governments over the past three years, including
Morsi’s, have only made promises, but never delivered,” Mr Fayoumi said
at a roadside cafe in Egypt’s textile hub of Mahallah, 115 kilometres
north of Cairo.

In the years since Mr Mubarak’s overthrow in 2011,
workers have staged persistent strikes across the country, only halting
them in February under a temporary truce with military-installed
authorities.

The strikes had taken place in key sectors, including
textiles, steel, cement, public transport, ports and postal services,
further compounding the country’s economic woes.

Protesting
workers have demanded higher wages along with a minimum wage plan,
improved working conditions, a halt to the privatisation of state-owned
units and an end to corruption.

After three decades at the massive
state-owned Masr Spinning and Weaving factory in the Nile Delta city of
Mahallah, Fayoumi, 53, says he earns a paltry $200 a month.

“How
am I supposed to offer a life of dignity to my family? If this situation
continues, we will strike again, no matter the next president, Sisi or
(Hamdeen) Sabbahi,” he said.

Mr El Sisi, who is riding a wave of
popularity and nationalist fervour after ending Mr Morsi’s divisive
year-long reign, is expected to win the May 26-27 vote. Leftist leader
Mr Sabbahi, his only rival, came in third in the 2012 election won by Mr
Morsi.

Mr El Sisi’s picture is displayed on shop windows in
Mahallah but are in smaller numbers than in Cairo, where large posters
and banners have sprung up in almost every square.

Analysts say
that for more than five decades, the authorities have negotiated with
the state-affiliated Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) as the sole
representative of workers, much to the frustration of critics who accuse
the union of being hand in glove with the authorities.

Independent
unions have proliferated since 2011, but the authorities refuse to
recognise them, and often use the army to help break strikes.

In February, Egyptian media said the army had dispatched scores of its drivers to replace striking public transport workers.

“This
comes as we witness ...a new (interim) government that includes figures
linked to the Mubarak regime ... which takes us back to a dark period
of Egypt’s history,” the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
said in a report.

Giving in to the workers’ demands, however,
would add to the government’s already hefty deficit at a time when
tourism and investment are at an all-time low and the economy is being
propped up by aid from Gulf allies.

“The budget deficit for this
year to June 2014 is estimated at about 20 per cent. If the government
adopts a minimum wage plan or increases salaries across categories as
demanded by workers, the deficit will simply soar,” said Shaheer George,
a labour researcher with EIPR.

Officials say the government wants
to cut the deficit — burdened by fuel and food subsidies — to 10 per
cent and set up labour-intensive projects to address unemployment, which
rose to around 14 per cent last year from nine before the 2011 revolt.

Labour
minister Nahed Ali Ashri declined an interview request, but the cabinet
said on Thursday it has approved a draft law which proposes setting up
fast-track courts to resolve labour disputes.
Labour activists have shrugged in response, warning that more confrontations may await.

“Workers
in cities like Mahallah are supporting Sisi, but if he fails to achieve
social justice, they will return to the streets against him,” said
activist Hamdy Hussein.

Investigations are underway into the shooting of a man inside a
police station on Sunday night at the hands of a non-commissioned
policeman.

The incident was followed by tight security measures around Imbaba
Police Station. State-run MENA reported that the man was a member of the
Muslim Brotherhood, which is considered a terrorist organisation by the
Egyptian government.

Ministry of Interior spokesman Hany Abdel Latif said that the man who
was killed entered the police station to post bail for a detained
friend who was held inside.

However, the victim himself was also wanted, the spokesman added.
Abel Latif said the man was identified by the non-commissioned police
officer. The two were involved in a fight and the non-commissioned
police officer fell to the floor in the struggle.

The victim was shot twice by the non-commissioned policeman who was
trying to arrest him, killing him instantly, state-run MENA reported,
citing a security source. He was wanted for partaking in a protest and
blocking roads.

Giza Director of Security Kamal Al-Dali ordered the detention of the policeman and investigations began Sunday night.

Committee to Protect Journalists

New
York, April 15, 2014--Two Egyptian journalists were shot by live ammunition on
Monday while covering clashes in Cairo between security forces and university students
supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood, according to news reports. At least one
student was killed in the clashes, news
reports said.

Amr
Abdel-Fattah, photographer for the independent TV channel Sada El-Balad, was shot
in the back and underwent surgery at a local hospital, according to news
reports. He is in stable condition. Khaled Hussein, reporter for Al-Youm
al-Saba'a, was shot in the chest, according to the independent daily. He underwent surgery and is in critical
condition, reports said. Both
journalists were taken to Qasr El-Einy Hospital.

While being taken to the
hospital, Hussein said the police had fired at him, according to a video published by Al-Youm
al-Saba'a.

Ahmed Mamdouh, a student and
protester who helped take the journalists to the hospital, told CPJ the police
used live ammunition to shoot at the journalists and protesters. Independent photojournalist
Amru Salahuddien also wrote a post on Facebook that said police had used live
ammunition. Al-Youm al-Saba'a published photos showing damage to the outer doors and walls of Cairo
University.

The
Interior Ministry denied police used live ammunition and said Muslim
Brotherhood protesters had shot at journalists, according to news reports.

"We call on the Egyptian government to ensure that
journalists can safely cover demonstrations," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle
East and North Africa program coordinator. "Authorities can take the first step
toward quelling the violence by fully investigating the attacks on Amr
Abdel-Fattah and Khaled Hussein and holding those responsible to
account."

Al-Dustour
daily reporter Mayada Ashraf was shot
dead while
covering clashes in Cairo last month, according to news reports.

SUEZ, Egypt — Strikes staged by thousands of Egyptian workers for
higher wages and better working conditions in recent months are setting
the stage for a possible confrontation between the impoverished laborers
and a new president after elections this spring.

The rallies and sit-ins that have crippled the postal service,
textile factories and even public hospitals are still fragmented,
largely uncoordinated and lack unified demands. But as the cash-strapped
government moves to quash labor unrest in places such as Suez, the
strikes underscore a social discontent that is still festering among
Egypt’s working class and could evolve into a more solid opposition to
the military-backed administration.

“Businessmen in this country have sucked the blood of the people —
and the one who is responsible is Abdel Fatah al-Sissi,” Ahmed Mahmoud,
who heads the Cairo branch of the Independent Union for Public Transport
Workers, said of the powerful former defense minister and now presidential hopeful.

Sissi,
who spearheaded the coup against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi last
summer and recently resigned as military commander to run for the
presidency, oversaw in February the mobilization of scores of army bus drivers to
thwart a strike led by Mahmoud’s union. Sissi’s allies have included
some of the corrupt businessmen and politicians who grew rich under
former autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

“The army and police are stronger
than us,” Mahmoud, 49, said at a rally held by government postal workers
outside the cabinet building in Cairo last month. Police had arrested
and detained five postal employees in Alexandria, Egypt’s second-largest
city, the week before for leading strikes for better pay.

“But our movement will spread in the face of this government,” he said.

Not all of Egypt’s striking workers are as quick to link their bread-and-butter issues in the workplace to a wider political struggle — or even to the shared pains of their fellow laborers.

Scattered strikes led by textile workers in the Nile Delta in the
late 2000s laid the groundwork for the anti-regime activism that
eventually toppled Mubarak in 2011. Later, sustained labor
demonstrations across several industrial sectors also destabilized
Morsi’s already embattled administration.

But decades of state
control over workers’ unions and political parties with a weak
grass-roots presence have hobbled the labor movement’s ability to
organize effectively on a national level, activists and experts say.

The
state-run Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions, founded in 1957, has
“always worked as the regime’s arm in suppressing labor strikes” by
routinely siding with the government over the workers, said Hossam
el-Hamalawy, a prominent activist with Egypt’s Revolutionary Socialists
movement.

According to Hesham Sallam, co-editor of the Jadaliyya
Web site published by the Washington-based Arab Studies Institute,
workers’ needs have long been thwarted by regime-friendly opposition
parties that claimed to speak for labor but “who sought to keep the workers quiet.”

Just
3.8 million of Egypt’s total workforce of 27 million people belong to
the state-run unions, which this week endorsed Sissi's candidacy as “a
lifeline for workers.” As a result, “there are still large sections of
the working class that are not unionized,” Hamalawy said.

DEMANDS FOR HIGHER PAY

Both public- and private-sector strikers have so far focused
their demands on higher salaries, increased hazard pay and, in some
cases, implementation of a national minimum wage. In January, the
government led by then-Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi failed to make
good on its promise to grant all government workers a minimum monthly
salary of about $172 — up from $100. Instead, one-third of civil
servants received a pay bump.

More than a quarter of Egyptians
live under the national poverty line of about $570 in annual income,
according to the government’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and
Statistics. Over the past three years of political turmoil, prices of
basic goods have skyrocketed because of inflation, a sinking Egyptian
currency and the depletion of the country’s foreign currency reserves.

“We
can’t survive through the month,” said Osama Rashed, a 38-year veteran
of the postal service who said he receives a monthly salary of $143.

Rashed
and his colleagues, who were demonstrating outside the cabinet building
on the same day as the transport workers, say the government eats into
their paychecks with fees for such things as uniforms, chairs and
ceiling fans in the summer — goods that never materialize.

Arrests of workers, while sporadic, have sent some labor leaders underground and have angered their colleagues on the outside.

“The arrests scare the workers, but they also make them more defiant,” Fatma Ramadan, an independent labor activist, said.

MILITARY INVOLVEMENT

In Suez province, a critical industrial center and strategic hub
of global maritime trade, the military has been particularly involved in
suppressing factory workers’ strikes, labor rights activists say. Those
actions could indicate how a military-supported Sissi presidency would
deal with the ongoing labor unrest.

In August, military police
stormed a worker sit-in at the privately owned Suez Steel Company. The
workers accused management of failing to honor an agreement that granted
them hazard pay, health care and a share of the company’s profits.

Last
month, a senior army commander in Suez helped eliminate the union
leadership at a local factory belonging to international ceramics and
porcelain producer Cleopatra Ceramics, according to workers.

On
March 3, Maj. Gen. Mohamed Shams summoned 23 of the union’s first- and
second-tier leaders to the area’s army headquarters and threatened to
have Egypt’s secret police investigate them for terrorism if they did
not sign resignation letters and leave the company, Cleopatra workers
and labor activists said.

Factory owner Mohamed Aboul Enein — and
former Mubarak heavyweight ally — had been locked in a years-long
struggle with workers over a 2012 agreement for better salaries,
overtime pay and food allowances. In a telephone interview, Enein said
he was forced to sign the contract under duress, after employees
barricaded him inside the factory overnight.

“These people belong
to the Muslim Brotherhood,” Enein said of the workers. The Egyptian
government has banned the Muslim Brotherhood and declared the group a
terrorist organization. But there is no evidence the union was acting on
behalf of the Islamist group.

“They always ask for money,” Enein said of the workers. “They are criminals.”

But
company labor leaders said Shams’s and Enein’s close advisers
threatened to bring the leaders’ wives and children to the military base
until they promised to leave. A spokesman for the Egyptian armed forces
did not respond to requests for comment.

“They kept saying that
if we did not sign, we would go to prison,” said Ayman Nofal, one of the
union members who was pushed out. The move has paralyzed worker
organizing there, current employees said.

“Like any entity in power, the military does not want strikes,” Ramadan said.

If
he becomes president, “Sissi will try to repress the workers, but that
means there will be another revolution,” she said. “They want democracy,
but they also want their economic rights.”

*Sharaf Al-Hourani and Lara El-Gibaly contributed to this report.**Photo by Sabry Khaled, courtesy of the Associated Press

The Guardian

Animated game version joins tat such as Sisi underpants and Sisi branded fast-food in milking general's cult-like status

Friday 11 April 2014

Patrick Kingsley

On Egyptian streets Abdel Fatah al-Sisi
– the top general who ousted ex-president Mohamed Morsi last summer –
reached superhuman status months ago. Now the digital world has caught
up: developers have released a Sisi-themed arcade-style game for Android
users, billing the strongman as an Egyptian superhero.

Super Sisi sees a two-dimensional version of Egypt's
likely next president fly through a cartoon Cairo, attempting to save
the country. In real life, Sisi's picture looms over most main roads in
Cairo, with many seeing his leadership as the answer to three years of
political instability.

In the game, Sisi's avatar flies over the
pyramids and the river Nile dodging bombs and explosives – a plotline
that might remind some of a real-life wave of militant attacks aimed at
soldiers and policemen.

The game is the latest in a string of
unlikely memorabilia aimed at cashing in on Sisi's cult status.
Elsewhere, Sisi's face adorns tat ranging from underpants, fast-food
packaging and, most famously, chocolates – at least until police raided
the patissiers who made them last month.

But popular culture has
not all been favourable to the man many expect to be elected Egypt's
next president in late May. In late March hundreds of thousands took to
social media to express disgust at the general. Using the slogan "vote
for the pimp' - it was a reminder that many Egyptians revile Sisi for his
role in a crackdown that has seen at least 16,000 political dissidents
arrested since regime change last July, and thousands killed.

After
months of speculation as to whether he would stand for the presidency,
Sisi resigned from the military in March, paving the way for a return to
strongman leadership for Egypt.

Sisi had been spoken of as a
potential head of state after he removed Morsi last July, following days
of mass protests against the Islamist-slanted government.

A poll
from late March by Egypt's leading pollsters, Baseera, suggested that
39% of Egyptians would vote for Sisi in an election. This dwarfs support
for the two other well-known candidates currently in the race – the
rightwing football club chairman Mortada Mansour and leftist Hamdeen
Sabbahi, who moulds himself in the image of Egypt's 60s autocrat, Gamal
Abdel Nasser.

But it is a marked drop from Baseera's February poll,
which gave Sisi 51%. Most voters say they are yet to decide, but their
choice is already limited by the withdrawal of two leading candidates
who say that the race will be neither free nor fair.

Index On Censorship

There is increased anxiety over the insecurity of Egypt's vulnerable gay community

9 April, 2014

Shahira Amin

A Cairo misdemeanour court on Monday sentenced three men to eight
years in prison “for committing homosexual acts”. A fourth defendant in
the case was sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour.

The men were allegedly found dressed in women’s clothes and wearing
make-up when they were arrested last month, following a police raid on a
private apartment in Cairo’s northern residential suburb of Nasr city.
The apartment had been a meeting place for some members of Egypt’s gay
community, who had been attending a party there when the raid occurred.

During Monday’s court session, prosecutors said one of the
defendants had rented the apartment to receive “sexual deviants” in his
home and host parties for them. While there are no laws banning
homosexuality in Egypt, “debauchery” or breaking the country’s law of
public morals is outlawed.

Egyptian courts use legislation on debauchery
to prosecute gay people on charges of “contempt of religion” and
“sexual immorality.”

The severe sentences the four men received on Monday have raised
concerns among rights campaigners of a widening crackdown on Egypt’s
long-oppressed and marginalised gay community.

Youth-activists expressed
their dismay and disappointment at the verdicts on social media
networks.

In a message posted on her Twitter account on Tuesday, Shadi
Rahimi, a journalist and photographer working for Al Monitor described
the verdicts as “outrageous”. Blogger Nervana Mahmoud meanwhile said:
“The verdicts demonstrate that the current regime is as conservative as
their Islamist predecessors.”

The recent crackdown on Egypt’s gay community is highly reminiscent
of the security clampdown in the spring/summer of 2001 when
authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak was still in power.

In May 2001,
52 people suspected of being gay were arrested on charges of immorality
during a raid on a tourist boat moored on the Nile in Cairo. Twenty
three of the men were sentenced to up to five years in prison with hard
labour.

The highly-publicised “Queen Boat case”, named after the
discotheque-boat that for long had been a known meeting place for
Egypt’s gay community, signalled what rights campaigners feared might be
an end to long years of discreet and quietly tolerated public activity
by the country’s threatened LGBT population.

Some analysts said at the
time that the sudden crackdown was a means of diverting attention away
from the regime’s failures, including a political crisis and a looming
economic recession. Critics of the 2001 crackdown also believed it was
an attempt by the then-autocratic regime to present an image as “the
guardian of public virtue so as to deflate an Islamist opposition
movement that appeared to be gaining support every day”.

Not surprisingly, many of Egypt’s gay men and women were at the
heart of the January 2011 protests demanding democracy, freedom and
social justice. They had hoped that the revolution would usher in a new
era of change including greater freedoms and tolerance, allowing them to
better integrate into mainstream society.

Karim, who requested that
only his first name be used out of concern for his safety, told Index:
“We had a lot of hope then but the last three years have only brought
disappointment. There has been no change in people’s attitudes. In fact,
we get insulted more often now, as people feel emboldened knowing that
the authorities are siding with them.”

Rights campaigners agree that life has gotten worse for Egypt’s gay
citizens since the Arab Spring.

Adel Ramadan, a legal officer at the
Cairo-based Egypt Initiative for Personal Rights told NBC News last year
that “after the fall of Mubarak, the criticism of revolutionary groups
has always contained a sexual element. Women who participate in protests
are often called prostitutes or ‘loose’ women, while male revolutionary
activists are called homosexuals”.

Meanwhile, the rise of Islamists to power in Egypt in the
post-revolution era fuelled fears among rights groups and Egyptian gay
citizens over greater restrictions on the gay community. They
anticipated an even harder crackdown under Islamist rule and worried
that the Islamist-dominated parliament would pass anti-gay legislation.

Whether or not their fears were justified is uncertain, for Islamist
rule in Egypt was short lived, lasting only one year. President Morsi
was toppled by military-backed protests on July 3, 2013 and the People’s
Assembly (the lower house of Parliament responsible for issuing
legislation) was disbanded by a Supreme Constitutional Court ruling in
June 2012, only a few months after its members were elected.

However, in
their time in power, there were signs indicating a potential tightening
of restrictions on Egypt’s gays. In August 2012, a man was arrested for
allegedly leading a “gay sex network” while later that year, vigilantes
beat four men suspected of being gay before handing them over to the
police.

“Many of my gay friends fled the country when the Islamists came to
power; they were terrified of what would happen to them under Islamist
rule. They knew they would not be able to live freely so they
emigrated,” said Karim. “Those who stayed behind, participated in the 30
June mass protests demanding Morsi’s downfall. We were overjoyed when
he was toppled and hoped there would be fewer restrictions on us from
then on,” he added.

Paradoxically, since Morsi’s ouster in July 2013, there has been a
rise in the number of arrests of people based on their sexual
orientation, according to the US-based Human Rights First group.
The group says the surge in arrests and prosecution of gay men and
women is part of the military-backed regime’s efforts to reassure
Egyptians that the current regime is as conservative as any Islamist
party.

In October 2013, state-owned Akhbar el Youm reported that at least
14 men were arrested for “practicing homosexuality” after a raid on a
health club in El Marg district in northeastern Cairo.

According to the
weekly newspaper, police found the men “in positions that were against
religious precepts”. Less than three weeks later, police arrested ten
more people on “homosexual-related charges”. The arrests occurred during
a police raid on a private party held to celebrate Love Day (Egypt’s
equivalent of Valentine’s Day) in Cairo’s western suburb of 6 October.

The men were subjected to humiliating anal examinations before being
convicted of prostitution and sentenced to between three and nine years
in prison. Mohamed Bakier, one of the defence lawyers in the case, said
the charges against them were “political rather than criminal”. He added
that the harsh sentences they received were meant to deliver a message
that the society is still conservative.

Similarly, the severe sentences handed down to the four men on
Monday may be an attempt by the military-backed authorities to appease a
sceptical public and win over conservatives in the deeply polarised
society ahead of upcoming presidential elections in which the former
defence minister Abdel Fattah El Sisi is the lead contender.

The verdicts, meanwhile, coincided with another court ruling
upholding three-year jail terms imposed on three secular revolutionary
activists convicted of organising or participating in unauthorised
protests, prompting rights campaigners to concur in opinion that this is
all part of the wider, ongoing crackdown on personal freedoms.

Whatever the motives are behind the harsh sentences, one thing is
certain: The verdicts have increased anxiety over the insecurity of
Egypt’s vulnerable gay community. “We no longer feel safe,” said Karim.
“We know we are being targeted by the police and sooner or later, they
will come after us.”

REUTERS

Monday April 7, 2014

Yasmine Salah

(Reuters) - An
Egyptian appeals court on Monday upheld the jailing of three leading
figures of the 2011 pro-democracy uprising, tightening a crackdown on
secular activists opposed to the army-backed government.
Critics see their case as an
attempt to stifle the kind of political street activism common since the
uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak three years ago, as Egypt
prepares for presidential elections next month.
A
court handed down three-year sentences to the three liberal activists,
Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma and Mohamed Adel, in December for protesting
without permission and assaulting the police.
The
verdict was the first under a new law that requires police permission
for demonstrations. The case stemmed from protests called in defiance of
the law. The European Union and the United States had urged Egypt to
reconsider the verdict.
Popular
leftist politician and presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabahi condemned the
sentences and urged Interim President Adly Mansour to grant the
activists a presidential pardon. The liberal al-Dostour party made the
same request.
The three men
appeared in court on Monday inside a metal cage wearing blue prison
suits and chanting: "Down, down with army rule, our country will always
be free!"
They have one final chance to appeal to a higher court but analysts see little hope of the verdict being overturned.'NAIL IN THE COFFIN'
"I
was not expecting this sentence at all. I was certainly expecting it to
be overturned. That is very bad news," said Dostour party spokesman
Khaled Dawoud.
"This will definitely send a very negative signal to all the young people who supported the (2011) January Revolution."
Already
pursuing a crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood movement of deposed
president Mohamed Mursi, the army-led authorities have arrested a
number of secular activists in recent months for breaches of the new
protest law.
"Today's verdict
against three of the most recognized faces of the January 25, 2011,
protests is one more nail in the coffin for Egypt's revolution," said
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director for Middle East and North Africa
at Human Rights Watch.
"The appeals court has failed to undo the worst excesses of the government's campaign to crush dissent."
The
U.S. State Department said the continued imprisonment of the trio ran
counter to the Egyptian government's commitment to protect the universal
rights of all Egyptians.
"We urge
the Egyptian government to exercise its constitutional authority to
commute these excessive sentences, which are not in line with the rights
guaranteed in Egypt's new constitution, Egypt's international
obligations or the government's own commitment not to return to
Mubarak-era practices," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a
briefing in Washington.
Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi, the general who toppled Mursi in July following mass
protests against his rule, is expected to win next month's presidential
election easily.
The former army
chief's supporters see him as a decisive figure who can bring stability.
Islamist and secular opponents say he has helped to turn Egypt back
into a police state.
Security
forces have killed hundreds of Brotherhood members and arrested
thousands. Mursi and many other top leaders are on trial.
Western
powers have called for democracy to be restored and for an end to human
rights abuses, but there are no signs that they intend to exert the
kind of pressure that might force change.

EU
foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is expected in Cairo on Wednesday
for talks with Egyptian officials, the state news agency said.

Cairo Post

April 6, 2013

CAIRO:
In its meeting Saturday the general assembly for the Egyptian Trade
Union Federation demanded that all ETUF headquarters be open to act as
operation rooms for Field Marshal Abdel Fatah al-Sisi‘s presidential campaign, Youm7 reported.

ETUF
Treasurer Gamal Ukby authorized the councils’ leaders to mobilize
workers and gather official mandates to support Sisi’s nomination in the
upcoming election.

Gebaly
al-Maraghy, ETUF’s head, said there is a necessity to motivate workers
to participate in the upcoming presidential, reported Al-Ahram newspaper
Saturday.

The
ETUF will form committees to execute a plan for promoting Sisi’s
presidential campaign, which would include creating promotional material
such as signs.

Renationalized companies left idle as workers fight to make factories function

April 3, 2014

Jano Charbel

Weary of governmental inaction regarding the court-ordered
re-nationalization of their companies, many workers have sought to take
matters into their own hands through experiments in workers’
self-management — only to find that the government is actively
obstructing their efforts.

Last month, authorities pulled the plug on one such experiment at the
Tanta Flax Company, which has been awaiting re-nationalization for over
two years.

On March 15, the Middle East Paper Company (Simo) became the seventh
company to become re-nationalized by court order since late 2011.
However, state authorities have not yet moved to bring this company back
into operation under the public sector.

Since September 2011, the Administrative Court has issued verdicts
nullifying the privatization contracts for the Tanta Flax Company,
Nubariya Seeds Company, Shebin al-Kom Textile Company and the Nile
Cotton Ginning Company, as well as the Nasr Steam Boilers Company and
Omar Effendi chain of department stores.

According to the court’s findings and rulings, these public sector
companies had been sold off to private investors from 1990s to 2010 at
far less than their real market value. Yet these companies and their
workers have been largely left in a state of limbo, no longer operated
by either private or public investors.

With the exception of the Omar Effendi stores, and to a lesser extent
the Shebin al-Kom Textile Company, the state has not invested in
re-nationalizing or re-operating these stalled companies.

In hopes of getting their jobs back and their factories running,
workers from these seven companies have filed petitions and staged
protests and sit-ins nationwide demanding a return to their jobs over
the course of three years.

These labor pleas come amid intensified calls from leading state
officials — including Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, Field Marshal Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi and Minister of Manpower Nahed al-Ahsry, among others —
for workers to stop protesting or striking, and to help salvage the
economy by resuming production.

But these calls for a return to production are ringing hollow for many workers.

“This is empty talk delivered for the sake of media consumption,” says Hesham al-Oql from the Tanta Flax and Oils Company.

“The opposite of these official statements is true. We workers are
jobless and want to re-operate our companies, but the government is
keeping us from getting back to work.”

Driven by frustration and years without an income, workers from the
Tanta Flax Company were the latest group to try their hand in
self-managing their factories.

EXPERIMENTS IN SELF-MANAGEMENT

On March 19, dozens of former workers began to operate two production
lines out of the ten within the Tanta Flax Company. Yet as news of this
effort spread beyond the company’s walls, local authorities switched off
the electricity to the company, and the experiment was over within a
matter of hours.

According to Oql, police forces were dispatched to the factory within
two hours after receiving news of the workers’ experiment.

“They claimed to sympathize [with] and support our efforts, yet a few
minutes after they had departed all electricity to the company was
suddenly cut off,” he says.

Another former worker, Gamal Othman, explains, “Upon announcing our
intention to self-manage the company, the Holding Company for Chemical
Industries called the local utilities authority in Tanta and had them
cut off our electricity.”

“Our intention in self-management was to show the Holding Company that
it is easy to re-operate the company’s factories, and that we have raw
materials to last us for a month of production,” a frustrated Othman
recounts.

Othman adds that he and his fellow workers sought to pressure the
Holding Company and the Ministry of Investment to follow through on
their promise of purchasing the necessary amount of flax seed crop from
local farmers — estimated at about LE7 million — by mid-May.

“We fear that if the Holding Company does not buy these crops from the
farmers, they will sell their produce to others, and plans to re-operate
the company by next year will never be implemented,” he warns.

Both the Holding Company for Chemical Industries and the Ministry of
Investment had made statements to the effect that they would re-operate
the Tanta Flax Company by 2015, although no specific date has been
mentioned for this operation.

Othman criticizes the government’s failure to re-operate Tanta Flax and other stalled companies.

“The authorities shouldn’t be paying workers compensation amounting to
only their basic wages, while they and their production lines remain
idle. This is a waste of the state’s resources. The authorities should
move to invest in the actual re-operation of workers and their
companies, as this will benefit both the state and the workers,” he
asserts.

The Tanta Flax Company’s workers were inspired by the successful
experiment in self-management which workers at the Nubariya Seed Company
had embarked upon some two years earlier. These two years of
self-management proved fruitful for the company, generating an estimated
LE10 million in profits during this time.

The profitable Nubaseed Company had been sold to Saudi investor Abdel
Ellah al-Kaaki in 1999 — the same businessman who would purchase the
Tanta Flax Company in 2005.

Kaaki had ceased his investments in these two companies by 2011, when
workers began filing their cases before the Administrative Court and
calling for re-nationalization.

The Nubaseed workers’ successful experiment in self-management was
halted by former Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi’s Cabinet in late 2013,
when the ministers appealed against the re-nationalization verdict
issued in 2011.

The Administrative Court is scheduled to issue its verdict regarding this appeal on April 12.
According to Oql, “The ball is in the playing field of the Finance
Ministry. It has been there for nearly three years now, yet we continue
to await any action.”

So as to encourage the Ministry of Investment to re-operate our
company, we informed them that we are willing to work for one month
without wages, free of charge, in order to get our company back on its
feet and also to get our jobs back. Yet we didn’t hear back from them,
and thus we decided to try self-administrating the company.”

Former presidential contender Khaled Ali, who served as the lawyer for
many of the aforementioned privatized companies, has called on state
authorities to allow workers to self-manage their companies when they
are stalled, or when investors flee the country.

Notable experiments in workers’ self-management include those of Ramy
Lakkah’s light bulb factory in the Tenth of Ramadan City, which lasted
from 2001-2006. Although the owner and investor had fled the country,
this experiment managed to increase both the company’s production and
profits. After settling his finances, the company was returned to Lakkah
upon his return from France.

In this same industrial zone, the textile enterprise known as the
Economic Company for Industrial Development was successfully managed
from 2008-2010. Its owner, Adel Agha, had fled the country and left over
500 workers behind, who managed to operate the company themselves. This
company, and its mother company Ahmonseto, was liquidated in 2010 and
shut down as banks repossessed Agha’s assets.

SIMO PAPER COMPANY

While Simo’s workers have considered self-managing their company, they
are unable to do so as gas lines and electricity have been cut-off since
June 2013 due to the former-owners’ failure to pay their industrial
utility bills.

As is the case with the aforementioned companies, the Administrative
Court found that the Simo Paper Company — which had been privatized as a
share holding company in 1997 — was sold-off to investors at a fraction
of its original market value.

Over 500 workers at the Simo Company — the company originally employed
around 3,000 workers prior to its privatization — have been without
work, pay or compensation since they brought forth their case before the
Administrative Court in June 2013.

“We signed petitions to government officials, the Cabinet and local
authorities to re-operate our company — to no avail,” says Abdel Ati
Ghareeb, president of Simo’s local union committee.

Simo’s workers protested outside Cabinet headquarters on March 8 along
with workers from several other stalled companies, where they demanded
state investment in order to get their company up and running.

A judicial appeal filed by the Holding Company for Chemical Industries —
which, like the Tanta Flax Company, is supposed to manage and oversee
Simo — against the March 15 verdict has halted the re-nationalization of
the Simo Paper Company. The Administrative Court has still not delivered
its verdict regarding this appeal.

“Our company is very profitable and can easily be re-operated with a
little bit of investment, maintenance and the payment of wages,” says
Ghareeb.

“We are willing and able to get back to work, and in fact we are
insisting upon returning to work. We just want our jobs and company
back.”

The Ministry of Manpower is due to pay Simo’s workers one month of
basic wages as of next week, according to Ghareeb, who adds, “While we
are grateful for any sort of assistance, we are not calling for monetary
handouts or temporary solutions. We demand the actual re-operation of
our company and the reinstatement of all sacked workers.”

Simo’s workers are taking shifts sleeping-in at the company, located in
Shubra al-Khaima, in order to protect its five factories, and to keep
intruders and thieves out, Ghareeb explains.

“We are unable to pay our rents or feed our families. We’re quickly
losing all hope as there appears to be no genuine concern from the
authorities, or any real willingness to resolve our grievances. Over 500
workers are slowing dying as our company is paralyzed.”

We are desperately screaming for the state to salvage our company,” he pleas.

Ghareeb and thousands of other workers remind the ruling authorities
that in April 2013, former Prime Minister Hesham Qandil was sentenced to
one year in prison for failing to uphold the verdict of
re-nationalization for the Nile Cotton Ginning Company.

Qandil appealed against this verdict, but again the sentence was upheld
in September 2013. The former prime minister was arrested in December
2013 and is now serving his sentence.

“We just want the government to practice what it preaches regarding
production and the ‘wheel of production,’” Ghareeb says. “Help us get
this company back in production, and within one month we will be
bringing back the profits.”

*Photo of workers at the self-managed Economic Company for Industrial Development in 2009, by Jano Charbel

Daily Mail

April 1, 2014

Simon Tomlinson

An Egyptian farmer has been jailed for
a year for naming his donkey after the country's former military chief
who is running for president.Omar Abul Maged was accused of 'humiliating the military' for calling his animal Sisi after Abdel Fatah al-Sisi who led the overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Maged,
31, put a military-style cap on his donkey, covered it with a poster of
al-Sisi and rode it through his village in protest against the decision
to oust Morsi last summer.

Andalus Center for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies told the Egypt Independent that it 'raises doubts about the fairness of the judiciary system in Egypt'.The
conviction comes after the judiciary last week sentenced 529 pro-Morsi
Muslim Brotherhood defendants to death in a massive crackdown on
government dissenters.

The electoral commission announced on
Sunday that Egypt's presidential election will be held in late May,
finally setting dates for the crucial vote widely expected to be won by
al-Sisi.

The commission set the first round of voting for May 26 and 27, with results expected by June 5. If a second round is necessary it will be held by mid-month with results announced no later than June 26, the commission said.

Al-Sisi sparked protests after announcing his bid for office, but is widely expected to win. His
victory would restore a tradition of presidents from military
backgrounds that Egypt had for all but one year since 1952, when
officers overthrew the monarchy and became the dominant force in
politics.